The 10th Doctor
The Tenth Doctor ' ' The '''Tenth Doctor is an incarnation of 'the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who. He is played by Scottish actor David Tennant in three series as well as nine specials. As with previous incarnations of the Doctor, the character has also appeared in other [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_spin-offs Doctor Who multimedia]. '''The '''Tenth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television programme Doctor Who. He is played by Scottish actor David Tennant in three series as well as nine specials. As with previous incarnations of the Doctor, the character has also appeared in other [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_spin-offs Doctor Who multimedia]. In the programme's narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old Time Lord alien from the planet Gallifrey who travels in time in his TARDIS, frequently with companions. When the Doctor is critically injured, he can regenerate his body; in doing so, his physical appearance and personality change, and a new actor assumes the role. This incarnation's companions include working class shop assistant Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), medical student Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman), and fiery temp worker Donna Noble (Catherine Tate). He eventually parts ways with them all by the end of the 2008 series finale, "Journey's End", after which he attempted to travel alone for the duration of the 2008–10 specials. In November 2013, as part of Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary celebrations, Tennant's Doctor was voted "The UK's favourite Doctor" in a survey held by the Radio Times magazine. Personality The Tenth Doctor generally displays a light-hearted, talkative, easy-going, witty, and cheeky manner, but nurses profound anger, regret, and vulnerability beneath his more glib exterior. In "School Reunion", he acknowledges that he is less merciful than he used to be and has stuck to his "one warning" code, always giving quarter punishing his enemies if they persist in their hostilities. He is quick to anger at the perception of injustice. When Prime Minister Harriet Jones destroys the retreating Sycorax ship against his wishes, he ruins her political career in retribution. In "The Waters of Mars", he goes so far as to declare himself above the laws of time, although there are catastrophic consequences as a result. In his more level-headed moments, though, the Doctor feels profound regret for the many deaths he's had a hand in. (The Moment even describes him as "the man who regrets" in "The Day of the Doctor.") In "Journey's End", he has a flashback of those who have died instead of/for him, including Astrid Peth, Jenny, Luke Rattigan, Lynda Moss, and the hostess from "Midnight". He often shows mercy even to his most irredeemable foes, offering Davros the chance to escape the destruction of the Dalek mothership and insisting on giving a Sontaran general the chance to escape with his life even though he knows a Sontaran would never retreat. The Tenth Doctor declaration that he is "so sorry" for what he must do is a leitmotif throughout the series. In "The Doctor's Daughter" he explains to his daughter Jenny how "killing...infects you and once it does you'll never get rid of it." Loneliness is the Tenth Doctor's most persistent personal demon: His relationship with various companions is always short-lived and often ends in tragedy. The survival guilt characteristic of his previous incarnation now takes the form of extreme isolation and a sense of melancholy at being the last of his kind. Even the apparent death of his arch-enemy The Master engenders grief, and in fact the Master elects to die rather than save his own life by regenerating simply to spite the Doctor. In "School Reunion", he says that the long lifespan of the Time Lords is a curse, because while his human companions someday leave him and eventually die, he continues to live. While they may spend the rest of their lives with him, he is unable to do so in turn. In "The End of Time", he ultimately ends up regenerating in the TARDIS alone, despite visits to his past companions in his dying hours. The Tenth Doctor has a tendency to babble, mixing apparent nonsense with vital information, sometimes acting erratically to put his enemies off-guard. In "The Christmas Invasion" and "Tooth and Claw", he is surprised at his own unintentional rudeness when making disparaging remarks, and Jack Harkness, after reuniting with the Doctor, notes that his "new regeneration (is) kinda cheeky".[16] He has a tendency to use technobabble to describe scientific concepts before substituting it with a simpler, analogous explanation, such as his description of non-linear temporal physics as "a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff".[17] He changes moods often, from mania to anger to nonchalance, and uses this as a form of reverse psychology. The Tenth Doctor is openly fond of mankind and in awe of their tenacity and curiosity, a trait previously exhibited by his fourth incarnation. In "The Impossible Planet", he hugs the leader of an Earth expedition for daring to explore a planet orbiting a black hole merely "because it was there". In "The Age of Steel", he describes human beings as both brilliant and stupid in the same sentence while arguing the necessity of emotions with the Cyber-Controller. Conversely, this makes his expectations rather high and his anger when he feels humanity has let him down quite severe. Indeed, his confidence in the human race becomes far less pronounced in later series, and at the end of "Midnight" he is left speechless after witnessing the steps humans can become willing to take when placed in a threatening situation, as he is almost killed by a panicky group of people who turn on him. The Tenth Doctor stands out for his love of human popular culture, including television, Harry Potter, and the film "The Lion King." More than any previous incarnation, the Tenth Doctor serves as a romantic leading man. His relationship with Rose becomes one of obviously mutual but unacknowledged love, and he has several flagrant, whirlwind romances with historical figures like Madame de Pompadour and Queen Elizabeth I (the latter of whom he actually marries, albeit somewhat unintentionally). In "School Reunion", Sarah Jane Smith all but confesses that she had been in love with him all along. Martha Jones runs off with the Doctor in Series 3 largely because of an obvious attraction to him, but her feelings remain unrequited due to his lingering preoccupation with Rose. On the other hand, he expressly singles out Donna as a new travelling companion precisely because they have no romantic chemistry. When he is poisoned in "The Unicorn and the Wasp" and asks Donna to give him a shock of some kind, kissing him proves to be so out-of-character for her that it is sufficient to trigger the detox process. Despite his constant heartache, the Tenth Doctor's qualities as a romantic lead remain one of his defining characteristics as a consistently well-dressed, traditionally handsome performer, engaging in such pageantry as sword fighting villains and riding to the rescue on a white horse in classic swashbuckling fashion. The Tenth Doctor speaks with an Estuary English accent, rather than the Greater Manchester accent (Christopher Eccleston's own accent) that the Ninth Doctor used, the Received Pronunciation of most earlier Doctors, or Tennant's natural Scottish English. David Tennant told SFX magazine in 2006 that Russell T Davies had asked him to drop his natural Scottish accent, because he felt "we'd like to not go for another obvious regional accent, because I suppose they'd done that".[18] In a 23 December interview on BBC Radio 1, Tennant explained that a line had been scripted for the Christmas special explaining that the newly regenerated Doctor had imprinted on Rose Tyler's accent, "like a chick hatching from an egg", but the line was cut from the final episode. The Tenth Doctor uses an American Appalachian accent in "The Christmas Invasion", and a Highland Scottish accent in "Tooth and Claw." Much as the Ninth Doctor frequently declared things "Fantastic!", this Doctor has also favoured certain phrases on various occasions, such as "Brilliant!", "oh yes!" (used in an exuberant fashion, often when he has successfully done something), "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry", and the French command "Allons-y" ("Let's go"). He often clarifies his own mistakes by beginning with an elongated "Well..." Both Tennant and his character express particular affection for Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor character and imitated much of Davison's style. The pair co-starred In the 2007 Children in Need special, "Time Crash" where their respective incarnations reflect on the commonalities of their mode and adventures. The Tenth admits to the Fifth that he was the Tenth's favourite past incarnation. Appearance The Doctor complains that his tenth incarnation is not "ginger". He wears his own brown hair in various ways throughout the series: unstyled in "The Christmas Invasion", a 1950s-style quiff in "The Idiot's Lantern", and flattened forwards in "The Runaway Bride". He has dark brown eyes and is perceived by most, including companions and other characters as "slim and a little bit foxy".[19] He generally wears either a dark brown (with blue pinstripes) or a blue (with rust red pinstripes) four-buttoned suit, a shirt and a tie, a light brown faux-suede overcoat (which he claims was given to him by Janis Joplin), and different coloured pairs of trainers, depending on his suit. According to an interview on Parkinson, David Tennant and Russell T Davies got the idea for the Tenth Doctor's costume from an outfit Jamie Oliver had worn on Parkinson just after Tennant had taken the role. David Tennant has commented that he would vary the combination of the buttons he fastened on his jacket in different episodes. The Doctor dons a pair of dark tortoise-shell rectangular frame glasses, an affectation (along with his signature footwear) borrowed from the Fifth Doctor. He also occasionally sports a pair of Red-Cyan 3D glasses, both as a joke and for practical reasons. The Tenth Doctor's costume became so popular that it has spawned numerous recreations (including a BBC-licensed replica of the Tenth Doctor's overcoat by AbbyShot Clothiers[21] and a white/red version worn by Tennant when he co-hosted Comic Relief), and has been cited by costume designer Louise Page as the costume she is most proud of from her time on Doctor Who.[22] Like his predecessor, the Tenth Doctor would shave his face, something that he sarcastically told his fifth incarnation he would be doing by the time he became the Tenth Doctor.